JJT: Jones must think big picture on Ware

Cotton

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Jones must think big picture on Ware

Cowboys' owner needs to be prepared to cut ties with veteran DE if it's necessary
Updated: February 21, 2014, 12:53 AM ET
By Jean-Jacques Taylor | ESPNDallas.com

Too many times to count over the past 17 seasons, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has chosen loyalty over common sense.

We're about to find out if being caught in the abyss of football mediocrity for nearly two decades is enough to make him do what he doesn't want to do -- give defensive end DeMarcus Ware a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum.

Hey, life is all about sometimes doing what you don't want to do.

You know, studying instead of partying the night before midterms. Taking your kids to dance or basketball practice. Squeezing in an extra cardio session instead of watching another episode of "House of Cards" on Netflix.

Well, Jerry must be ready to walk away from Ware, the franchise's best player for nearly a decade.

If it comes to that, it will be difficult. Tough.

See, it's easy to walk away from receiver Miles Austin because he has done virtually nothing except cash checks from Jerry the past two seasons. His biggest impact last season was serving as the intended target on interceptions in season-defining losses to Green Bay and Philadelphia.

Cutting Austin requires no introspection.

It's different with Ware, a guy who will get strong consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Cowboys' Ring of Honor, which is almost as difficult to gain entrance.

Ware is scheduled to make $12.25 million next season, which would make him the second-highest paid defensive end in the NFL. If he had put up his usual numbers that would be fine.

He didn't. And he wasn't close.

We can blame injuries. Or ineffectiveness. Or the scheme change that required him to play a traditional defensive end instead of an outside linebacker.

Guess what? None of that matters.

What matters is Ware had only six sacks and missed three games. Understand, the NFL is a dirty game.

The contracts are barely worth the paper they're printed on because the player, the agent and the team each understands the guaranteed money is all that matters. Ware has a cap figure of $16 million next season.

The Cowboys are projected to be about $15 million to $20 million over the NFL-mandated $130 million salary cap. The Cowboys need cap room, so Ware's figure must be reduced.

In the past, the Cowboys would've simply done some fancy accounting that lowered Ware's cap number but guaranteed him the same amount of money. Releasing Ware would save the Cowboys $7.4 million.

The Cowboys want to slice Ware's salary because his performance is no longer commensurate with being one of the highest-paid players in the league. Jerry would like to do this delicately because of Ware's stature in the franchise and the team.

The reality, however, is Jerry must walk away if Ware doesn't want to accept, say, a salary of $7 million with incentives that would let him recoup most of the money if he plays at the level he has shown he can achieve so many times in the past.

Ware won't be happy about the possibility of his salary decreasing. We know this. No player has ever eagerly accepted a pay cut.

Too bad.

This is today's NFL. Guys take pay cuts when they don't play well, and they withhold their services when they outperform their contracts and management doesn't want to give them a raise.

Here's what will happen in Ware's case: His agent will shop the Cowboys' offer around the league and see if he can get a better deal. If he can't, then Ware will accept whatever salary slash the Cowboys have in mind.

If he does get a better offer, Ware must decide whether he wants to be a guy who plays his entire career with one team, or if he wants to leave for a bigger paycheck.

It's not complicated.

Ware owes Jerry nothing but a handshake. He has done everything you want a first-round pick to do.

He has been a great player, an asset to the community and has never been linked to anything remotely shady. He's a poster child for being the consummate professional.

For that, Jerry has paid him well. Jerry's loyalty, though, must be to the fans and the franchise -- not to Ware.

Jerry must be willing to let one of his favorite players leave.

Tough decisions like this are the only hope for the Cowboys to remove the stench of mediocrity that has enveloped this franchise.

___________________________

Spot on.
 

boozeman

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Jason Garrett thinks DeMarcus Ware can still be an elite pass rusher and so does his agent Pat Dye



Cowboys vice-president Stephen Jones acknowledges the team has a decision to make regarding defensive end DeMarcus Ware’s $16 million cap hit and $12 million salary for 2014.

They can restructure it to lower the cap figure by turning the base into signing bonus, ask him to take a pay cut or release the team’s all-time leading pass rusher.

The Cowboys have not had any talks with Ware’s agent Pat Dye regarding the contract and won’t be rushed to get anything clarified before March 11, Jones said.

What must be considered outside of Ware’s six sacks last season that seemed to suggest that his career is decline is his recent surgery to repair nerve damage in his elbow.

While Dye declined the comment on whether Ware would be willing to take a pay cut to stay with the Cowboys, he does believe his client will be back to his old dominating self in 2014, thanks to the surgery.

Dye said the elbow was much worse than Ware let on and doctors asked him how he was able to play with the injury. The elbow has actually bothered him the last two years, though Ware rarely let him keep him the field. He missed three games in 2013 due a quad strain.

Dye is not alone in his assessment. Cowboys coach Jason Garrett also believes Ware are still be an elite pass rusher, blaming his declining production on injuries.

“He was dealing with a number of different things throughout the course of the season,” Garrett said. “So he’s been a great football player for us. We still feel like he’s a young player. We’ve got to get him healthy and get him back to the form we’re all used to.”

While Garrett declined to get into contract aspect of Ware’s situation, he said met the former Pro Bowler earlier this week before he left for the combine and is looking forward to him getting healthy and being dominant again in 2014.

“We don’t want to get into all of these roster discussions right now,” Garrett said. “But I had a great meeting with him [Wednesday]. What we anticipate all of the guys on our football team to do is get ready to play in 2014. In DeMarcus’ case, he’s got to get himself healthy, get that elbow cleaned up, the other things he’s had to deal with and get himself ready to go and be his best version.”

Clarence Hill
 

midswat

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Not only do I hope Ware leaves the team... but I hope he goes to a contender where he'll have a shot at winning a championship before he retires.

He deserves that.
 

UncleMilti

This seemed like a good idea at the time.
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Not only do I hope Ware leaves the team... but I hope he goes to a contender where he'll have a shot at winning a championship before he retires.

He deserves that.

Agreed.

He is only going to continue to be part of the Clown show that is Jerry Jones and Goof Son.

No SB possibility anytime soon.
 

Plan9Misfit

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Not only do I hope Ware leaves the team... but I hope he goes to a contender where he'll have a shot at winning a championship before he retires.

He deserves that.
He doesn't "deserve" anything. No player is entitled to a fucking thing.
 

L.T. Fan

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He doesn't "deserve" anything. No player is entitled to a fucking thing.
Agree. They play for pay and that's all they deserve. Sometimes they don't even deserve what they get based on some performances.
 
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midswat

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He doesn't "deserve" anything. No player is entitled to a fucking thing.
Maybe deserves wasn't the right word.

He is a hall of fame player and has always done things the right way. I'd like to see him retire with a ring on his finger.
 

boozeman

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Spagnola: Time To Weigh In On DeMarcus Ware

Posted 9 hours ago


Mickey Spagnola

DallasCowboys.com Columnist


IRVING, Texas – Since the depressing end to the 2013 season, there has been talk of DeMarcus Ware being over the hill.

That the wear and tear of nine NFL seasons is starting to catch up with the body of this seven-time Pro Bowler that will turn 32 the last day of July.

That the switch from playing outside linebacker in the Cowboys’ previous 3-4 defensive alignment to defensive end with his hand in the dirt in the current 4-3 scheme subjected his body to far too much abuse.

That he no longer is worth the money, the scheduled $12.25 million base salary for 2014 that comes along with a $16 million salary cap hit against a team’s bloated cap in need of deflation.

Just cut him, some say, take the cap hit and move on.

The poor guy could barely raise his right arm to defend himself Wednesday evening at AT&T Stadium where he kept an appearance commitment to Nationwide despite having undergone two surgeries not much more than 24 hours earlier. That’s right, two.

First, that bothersome right elbow was scoped to clear out some loose bodies, something he had been contemplating since the end of the season.

Second, while they were under the hood, doctors opened up the elbow to realign the ulnar nerve, repositioning the pinched nerve into a more comfortable compartment between the muscles, leaving his right arm, from the hand to the shoulder thoroughly and significantly wrapped, as if the start of being mummified.

“Already feels better, can tell the difference,” Ware said as he managed to sign footballs, pointing out he had been wearing basically an elbow pad used by hockey players all season long since injuring the elbow in training camp. “If I hit it just right was like a bunch of bee stings each time.”

Combine the elbow with the badly bruised quad, along with the neck strain he put up with most of the season, and maybe we better understand his career-low six-sack season and why he registered only two sacks in the final 13 games (missing three of those) after collecting four in the first three. And why he would be seen on the sideline even more during crucial stretches of games over the final month of the season.

Now, as bad as this dual elbow surgery might sound, and definitely looked the next day, Ware insists he’ll be ready for the start of the official offseason workouts, including the OTAs and minicamps come May.

Physically, he says he’ll be just fine and plans to play a little lighter this season, no longer worried about needing the extra weight he put on last year because of the move to defensive end. Mentally, he says he’ll be even better.

Now the hard part: The financials, although Ware says the Cowboys, needing to get their salary cap powder a bit drier, have not come to him with any cap-saving proposals.

As usual, the annual salary cap hysteria is swirling, you know, same song, next verse for a team always spending to the cap maximum, so many pulling their hair out worrying how the Cowboys will trim $20 million off their cap; how will they have enough money to even draft or possibly even do minimal work in free agency.

At ease, Cowboys COO Stephen Jones says. The situation is not as dire as it seems, though does need some adjusting. For starters, if reports coming out of Indianapolis are accurate, the cap will rise from what was expected to be like close to $125 million to around $130 million. That helps.

Then, I found out this: If the Cowboys decide to adjust the base salaries of Tony Romo ($13.5 million) and Ware ($12.25 million), which they knew would have to be done when writing those contracts, they would shave $18.5 million off the 2014 cap. That simple. And guys don’t mind this since base salary is converted into signing bonus, which means they actually get their money up front instead of over a 17-week period during the season.

Oh, and I can hear the screams now, about how that just compounds the cap problems into future years by turning base salary now into a prorated signing bonus that will hamper them down the road. Yeah, right, but remember, the salary cap will continue to rise, giving the Cowboys much more room to absorb the hits.

There are those who insist the Cowboys should just part ways with Ware, cut him because they are told they can reduce a cap hit from $16 million to just $8.571 million in dead money. That is true. But can a team that already is dealing with $11.8 million in dead money for 2014 move that figure to nearly $20 million being spent for nothing?

They will tell you that dead money can be minimized by making Ware a post-June 1 release. That is true, $3.75 million. But what they fail to mention is another $5.3 million will charge in 2015, and that you can’t use the available space created until after June 1.

The same with all this talk about Miles Austin. You know, how Austin’s steady decline these past two years is not worth a $5.5 million base salary. Maybe so, but release him today and he’ll charge $7.855 million against the cap, again for nothing. Do so after June 1, you’re told Austin will count just $2.749 million this year. But what they fail to tell you is that in 2015 he’ll count another $3.92 million in dead money.

As you can see, when it comes to the salary cap, once you pay a signing bonus or write guaranteed money into a contract, there is no free get-out-of-jail card available.

The other alternative is to strong-arm a player, meaning offer a cut in base salary or else. That is a delicate issue. And don’t think just because that worked with Doug Free last year that will work with a Ware. You say no one will offer him a deal to make the $12.25 million in base salary. Maybe not, but that’s where an agent has to do his homework.

What another team might do, though, is write a deal giving the player a chance to earn what he was supposed to earn, a combination of signing bonus, base salary and incentives. Also remember that guys are more likely to take a pay cut in someone else’s locker room than in their own.

Then there is what Baltimore did with a similar case to Ware’s, that of Terrell Suggs, who was heading into the final year of a six-year, $62.5 million deal that included a $7.8 million base salary with a $12.4 million cap hit. The Ravens decided that was too rich for their cap blood but weren’t willing to part ways with Suggs, who was sort of in the same performance boat as Ware.

Suggs, too, will turn 32 this coming season. He’s had 12 sacks in the past two seasons, compared to Ware’s 17.5. Of the 10 Suggs registered in 2013, only one came in the final eight games of the season. And in 2012, Suggs was healthy enough to play just eight games.

So here is what the Ravens just did: They tore up Suggs’ final year of his contract, then signed him to a four-year, $28.5 million deal extension, with $11 million in signing bonus and $16 million guaranteed. The deal was constructed to count just $7.8 million against the cap in 2014 instead of the previous $12.4 million.

And when it comes to dead money, the deal really is a three-year contract, since the Ravens could cut him after the 2016 season and only cost them $4.4 million that could be spread over two years if a post-June 1 release.

In the end, the Ravens get the cap relief they needed and Suggs gets the money he was owed in 2014 in the first place, and then some for his trouble. Sort of the same as turning existing base salary into signing bonus. The only difference is the Cowboys have the preexisting miscellaneous prorated bonuses from previous restructures totaling more than $8 million to still account for whatever new deal would be signed.

Also let’s remember, it’s not just the dead money simply releasing Ware costs you, but replacing him with another player capable of just six sacks in a season will cost, too. And need I remind you that until these past two seasons, no Cowboys player not named Ware had more than six sacks in the three previous seasons to that (2009-11), and since Ware has been here, only Greg Ellis had more than eight sacks in a single season (12.5 in 2007). That’s going back a ways.




In fact, Ellis’ nine sacks in 2004 were the most by a Cowboys player from 1997-2005, a total of nine seasons. So let’s not just assume Ware is so replaceable since the only three guys with double-digit sacks since he arrived in 2005 are either retired (Ellis) or unrestricted free agents (Jason Hatcher and Anthony Spencer). Also, Ellis was, uh, 32 years old when he recorded those 12.5 sacks for the Cowboys in 2007.

To me, the only way none of this restructuring makes sense is if the Cowboys are convinced Ware’s body is breaking down beyond future effectiveness. And it sure doesn’t sound as if they feel that way.

Just the other day, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett had this to say about Ware, pointing out the injuries prevented Ware from practicing enough to properly prepare for games during the second half of the season:

“I think if you watched him in training camp and the early part of the season, you saw him transition pretty quickly (to defensive end). But again, a lot of the injuries started to creep in on him and he was practicing less and less and fighting through these things and wasn’t quite himself as the year went on. So hopefully with him, the big question is health, getting him healthy and getting him back to his old form.”

Form that includes a right elbow minus unwelcomed floating bodies and the debilitating feeling of bee stings upon contact.

So ask yourself this question before you decide to eat $8.571 million of dead money:

Who among us wants to bet, say, $50,000 of our own money that Ware is done? Be honest, raise your right hand.
 

Plan9Misfit

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Maybe deserves wasn't the right word.

He is a hall of fame player and has always done things the right way. I'd like to see him retire with a ring on his finger.
Here's the difference between me and the mindless fan: I don't give a shit who is on our team. All I care about is winning another championship. I have no allegiance whatsoever to any particular player. The only thing I want to do with respect to players is get rid of aging payers who can't contribute and dump progress stoppers. And Ware is starting to fall into that category.
 

NoDak

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Who among us wants to bet, say, $50,000 of our own money that Ware is done? Be honest, raise your right hand.
No? Didn't think so.

~walks away, turning sideways to fit shoulders thru door~
 

Plan9Misfit

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:rolleyes

Funny how everyone is always smarter than everybody else.
I never said "everyone else". I specifically addressed mindless fans. Most of the people on this forum aren't mindless fans, but you're walking the line there. LOL
 

NoDak

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I never said "everyone else". I specifically addressed mindless fans. Most of the people on this forum aren't mindless fans, but you're walking the line there. LOL
It's called a generalization. I never said that you said "everyone else". But whenever somebody is of another opinion, it's funny how the other person is the mindless one. Regardless of the topic. Politics, sports, social issues, etc... And that's what I was commenting on.
 

ravidubey

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Who among us wants to bet, say, $50,000 of our own money that Ware is done? Be honest, raise your right hand.
Using this relative scale it would cost me $100,000 to keep him and $50,000 to dump him, so I'd probably ask him to take a pay cut or dump him. I'd even offer incentives that would pay him his full $100,000 if he earned it.

Last year at age 30 Ware began the offseason completely healthy. Then in OTAs and training camp-- little full contact-- his body accumulated injuries to the point he "couldn't raise his arm".

Now he's starting the season with his right arm bandaged like a mummy, he'll be 32 opening day, and you're saying I should write him a big fat check because no FA's or draftees out there can make 6 bloody sacks??
 

boozeman

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I stopped giving a shit personally about players on the team when I was a kid. I do not idolize any single one of them since basically now they have very little commitment to the team or its pride and value their contracts far more.
 

Texas Ace

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I stopped giving a shit personally about players on the team when I was a kid. I do not idolize any single one of them since basically now they have very little commitment to the team or its pride and value their contracts far more.
I stopped caring personally right around 10 years ago.

I obviously still have certain guys I like more and others who I admire, but the laundry is all that matters now.

I don't care if Ware wins shit if it isn't here. I even soured on Jason Witten - the one guy in the team I held higher than everyone else. And do you know why?

For as great as both players have been on the field and off, they've done nothing to fix what's wrong with the leadership problem in the locker roomor the epic choking of the team.

They're both company men who make excuses for the group when they repeatedly fail. They both just sit there quietly on the sidelines like everyone else when the team starts to fall apart.

For those reasons, I stopped feeling like these guys "deserved" better.

It's like the old saying goes - "if you aren't part of the solution....."

And these two have not been part of the solution.

I'm just ready to see every Cowboy go that has been part if the most humiliating era in the history of the franchise.
 

midswat

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Dez and ware are the only cowboy players I really root for as far as stats and all. But I'm not going to cut myself to take the pain away if either leave the team.

#mindlessfan
 

jsmith6919

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I don't get why some say they hope Ware,Romo or Witten goes to another team and gets a ring,they deserves nothing. They were all the supposed leaders when the team quit on Wade and also quit twice last year
 
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